“Are You Planning to Follow Your Route?” The Effect of Route Exchange on Decision Making, Trust, and Safety

Abstract

The Sea Traffic Management (STM) Validation project is a European based initiative which focuses on connecting and updating the maritime world in real time, with efficient information exchange. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two functions developed during the project: a ship to ship route exchange (S2SREX) function and rendezvous (RDV) information layer, collectively referred to as S2SREX/RDV. S2SREX displays the route segment consisting of the next seven waypoints of the monitored route of a collaborating ship and the RDV layer that predicts a meeting point. S2SREX/RDV provides supplementary information to data acquired by existing navigation systems and is intended to improve situational awareness and safety through a more comprehensive understanding of the surrounding traffic. Chalmers University of Technology and Solent University completed an experiment using twenty-four experienced navigators in bridge simulators. Six traffic scenarios were developed by subject matter experts and tested with and without S2SREX/RDV functionalities. Qualitative data were collected using post-test questionnaires and group debriefs to evaluate the participants’ perceptions of S2SREX/RDV in the various traffic scenarios, and quantitative data were collected to assess the ship distances and behavior in relation to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). The results revealed that participants generally trusted the S2SREX/RDV information, and most used S2SREX/RDV for decision support. The quantitative assessment revealed that the COLREGs were breached more often when S2SREX/RDV was used. Experimental findings are discussed in relation to safety, trust, reliance, situational awareness, and human-automation interaction constructs.

On the possibility of COLREGS/STM integration

“…Ship-to-ship route exchange represents one of the possibilities of the STM system, which gives option to OOW to foresee possible dangers and plan his movement in advance. This information is transferred via the Automatic Identification System (AIS) between ships and displays the route segment consisting of the next seven waypoints of the monitored route with a rendezvous information layer that predicts a meeting point 18 . Figure 1 STM system (Ship-to-ship route exchange -right picture)…”

Navigators’ views of a collision avoidance decision support system for maritime navigation

“…These functions provide additional information about surrounding traffic and allow information exchange between ships to enable operators to make more informed decisions based on real-time information. The results from the STM project indicate that, although several of the STM services were useful, they caused changes to existing work practices which could impact communication structures, workload, and situational awareness (Aylward et al, 2020a, 2020b). This work highlighted the need for an increased research focus on the potential impacts of low-level automation within the maritime socio-technical system.…”

Using Operational Scenarios in a Virtual Reality Enhanced Design Process

“…Instead, technological systems continue to be developed that "assist" with navigational tasks, yet their lack of integration into existing systems and the lack of a systemic approach end up making the system merely more complex [9,26]. Successfully designing solutions for a ship's bridge requires access to the user context while also maintaining awareness of the rapid development of new design concepts [27].…”